McDonald’s Stockholm Will Let Customers Trade Cans for Burgers

A new program at McDonald’s in Stockholm is even more affordable than their Dollar Menu. Through an collaboration with DDB, the fast food chain is now accepting recycled cans in exchange for food. Geared toward the city’s endless festivals, the program was designed to get young festival goers to unwittingly clean up the massive amounts of beer and soda cans left around the city after the festivals close.

Despite McDonald’s chemical and meat-laden menu, the can-for-burgers plan is a smart model that other businesses could take on as their own. All around Stockholm, McDonald’s has installed unique advertisements for their new plan. More than just a poster, the ads conceal plastic bag dispensers for collecting cans. Users only need to tug on the poster’s bottom and the free bag is dislodged and ready to go.

McDonald’s logic is that kids going to music festivals have likely blown all of their money on tickets, drinks and t-shirts. And after a long day of dancing to music with thousands of other fans, they are going to be hungry. The conveniently placed bags give these fans easy instructions- just fill the bags with empty cans collected from the ground, and bring them to McDonald’s to trade in for burgers. 10 cans earns one hamburger or cheeseburger, and 40 gets a Big Mac.

This can exchange program could make a world of difference in lower income communities, where food could be used as an incentive for cleaning up the neighborhood. Except we wish healthier, more sustainable alternatives would be offered!